Paul Wells

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Tips of the trade

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To the Trade

Tips of the trade

Sometimes colleagues ask for advice. Here's what I tell them.

Paul Wells
May 30, 2022
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Tips of the trade

paulwells.substack.com

I’ve been adding new sections to this newsletter for different styles of writing: Positive Jam, for my writing on the arts and culture; En français, svp, for anything I might end up writing in French; and, as of today, To the Trade, which is where I’ll keep my writing about journalism as a craft, an industry, a slow-motion catastrophe, what have you.

I’ve already populated To The Trade with three short articles of advice to younger journalists. They’re tip sheets I wrote for participants in the Canadian Association of Journalists’ excellent mentorship program. Finding mentors used to be easier, when newsrooms were bigger. Since I didn’t study journalism formally, I got everything I know from colleagues, including older journalists who took the time to share tips. So when I’m able, I take the CAJ’s invitation to pay it forward to younger reporters.

The three short pieces I published today are discussions of technique rather than meditations on ethics, workplace politics or other worthy topics. On other days, I may indulge those loftier discussions. In the meantime, I’m not sure it’s always obvious to younger journalists how they’re supposed to execute the basics of the craft. So I sometimes think that’s where I can be most helpful, if at all.

Here are the three tip sheets:

Everything I know about interview technique

Everything I know about structuring a feature

Everything I know about developing your voice

Paywall’s down for this, so you can share it to the young journalist in your life…

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…though if you’re glad I wrote it, you are always free to make the leap and become a paid subscriber:

Later this week I’ll be sending subscribers a substantial essay about the state of our politics, followed by morning-after thoughts on the Ontario election. And maybe some other stuff too. I’m grateful, as always, for your time and attention.

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Tips of the trade

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5 Comments
Laura F
May 31, 2022Liked by Paul Wells

Shared with our young journalist thank you ! She starts at the Globe in a few weeks.

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1 reply by Paul Wells
Nigel Beale, The Biblio File
Writes Nigel Beale
May 30, 2022

Outstanding content. Thank you. From the bleachers over here it looks like you're more John Sawatsky's man than Howard Stern's.

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